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Maintenance expenditures and indeterminacy under increasing returns to scale

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Jang-Ting Guo
Kevin J. Lansing

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Abstract

This paper develops a one-sector real business cycle model in which competitive firms allocate resources for the production of goods, investment in new capital, and maintenance of existing capital. Firms also choose the utilization rate of existing capital. A higher utilization rate leads to faster capital depreciation, while an increase in maintenance activity has the opposite effect. We show that as the equilibrium ratio of maintenance expenditures to GDP rises, the required degree of increasing returns for local indeterminacy declines over a wide range of parameter combinations. When the model is calibrated to match empirical evidence on the relative size of maintenance and repair activity, we find that local indeterminacy (and belief-driven fluctuations) can occur with a mild and empirically-plausible degree of increasing returns–around 1.08.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco in its series Working Paper Series with number 2005-10.

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Date of creation: 2005
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2005-10

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Keywords: Business cycles Competition

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Jess Benhabib & Qinglai Meng & Kazuo Nishimura, 2000. "Indeterminacy under Constant Returns to Scale in Multisector Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1541-1548, November.
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  2. Benhabib Jess & Farmer Roger E. A., 1994. "Indeterminacy and Increasing Returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 19-41, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Benhabib, Jess & Nishimura, Kazuo, 1998. "Indeterminacy and Sunspots with Constant Returns," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 58-96, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Ellen R. McGrattan & James A. Schmitz, Jr., 1999. "Maintenance and repair: too big to ignore," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Fall, pages 2-13. [Downloadable!]
  5. repec:cup:macdyn:v:8:y:2004:i:1:p:3-26 is not listed on IDEAS
  6. Burnside, Craig, 1996. "Production function regressions, returns to scale, and externalities," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 177-201, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Greenwood, Jeremy & Hercowitz, Zvi & Huffman, Gregory W, 1988. "Investment, Capacity Utilization, and the Real Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(3), pages 402-17, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. M. Weder, . "Animal Spirits, Technology Shocks and the Business Cycle," Sonderforschungsbereich 373 1997-61, Humboldt Universitaet Berlin.
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  9. Guo, Jang-Ting & Harrison, Sharon G., 2001. "Indeterminacy with capital utilization and sector-specific externalities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 72(3), pages 355-360, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald, 1996. "Returns to scale in U.S. production: estimates and implications," International Finance Discussion Papers 546, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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  11. Pintus, Patrick A., 2004. "Expectations-Driven Fluctuations When Factor Utilization Is Variable," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(01), pages 3-26, January. [Downloadable!]
  12. Farmer Roger E. A. & Guo Jang-Ting, 1994. "Real Business Cycles and the Animal Spirits Hypothesis," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 42-72, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Wen, Yi, 1998. "Capacity Utilization under Increasing Returns to Scale," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 7-36, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
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  1. Francesco Busato & Bruno Charini & Enrico Marchetti, 2004. "Indeterminacy, Underground Activities and Tax Evasion," Economics Working Papers 2004-12, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
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  2. Francesco Busato & Enrico Marchetti, 2006. "Skills, sunspots and cycles," Economics Working Papers 2006-07, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
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